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THE HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION IN ENGLAND
Williams College
David A. Wells Prize Essays
Number 2
THE HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION IN ENGLAND
by
SHEPARD ASHMAN MORGAN, M.A.
[Illustration: LOGO]
Printed for the
Department of Political Science
of Williams College
by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York
1911
HENRY LOOMIS NELSON
OLIM
PRECEPTORI
D. D. D.
DISCIPULUS
HAUD IMMEMOR
S. A. M.
PREFACE
THIS is the second volume in the series of “David A. Wells Prize
Essays” established under the provisions of the bequest of the late
David A. Wells. The subject for competition is announced in the spring
of each year and essays may be submitted by members of the senior
class in Williams College and by graduates of not more than three
years’ standing. By the terms of the will of the founder the following
limitation is imposed: “No subject shall be selected for competitive
writing or investigation and no essay shall be considered which in
any way advocates or defends the spoliation of property under form or
process of law; or the restriction of Commerce in times of peace by
Legislation, except for moral or sanitary purposes; or the enactment of
usury laws; or the impairment of contracts by the debasement of coin;
or the issue and use by Government of irredeemable notes or promises to
pay intended to be used as currency and as a substitute for money; or
which defends the endowment of such ‘paper,’ ‘notes’ and ‘promises to
pay’ with the legal tender quality.”
The first essay, published in 1905, was “The Contributions of the
Landed Man to Civil Liberty,” by Elwin Lawrence Page. The subject of
the following essay was announced in 1906 by the late Henry Loomis
Nelson, then David A. Wells Professor of Political Science. As first
framed it read, “The Origin and Growth of the Power of the English
National Council and Parliament to Levy Taxes, from the Time of the
Norman Conquest to the Enactment of the Bill of Rights; Together with
a Statement of the Constitutional Law of the United States Governing
Taxation.” Mr. Nelson subsequently eliminated the last clause, thus
restricting the field of the essay to English Constitutional History.
The prize was awarded in 1907. Since the death of Mr. Nelson in
1908, the task of editing the successful essay has been given to the
undersigned in coöperation with the author.
In publishing this volume occasion is taken to state the purpose of
the competition. Since it is confined to students and graduates of a
college which offers no post-graduate instruction, it is not intended
to require original historical research but rather to encourage a
thoughtful handling of problems in political science.
THEODORE CLARKE SMITH,
J. Leland Miller Professor of
American History
WILLIAMS COLLEGE,
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS., December, 1910.
INTRODUCTION
IN a chapter of Hall’s Chronicle having to do with the mid-reign
history of Henry VIII occurs an instance of popular protest against
arbitrary taxation. The people are complaining against the Commissions,
says the Chronicler, bodies appointed by the Crown to levy taxes
without consent of Parliament. “For thei saied,” so goes the passage,
“if men should geue their goodes by a Commission, then wer it worse
than the taxes of Fraunce, and so England should be bond and not free.”
Hall’s naïve statement is scarcely less than a declaration of the
axiomatic principle of politics that self-taxation is an essential of
self-government.
Writers on the evolution of the taxing power are inclined to go a step
farther and believe that the liberty of a nation can be gauged most
readily by the power of the people over the public purse. With a view
so extended a narrative of the growth of popular control in England
might easily expand into a history of the English Constitution. In the
present essay, however, an effort has been made to exclude all matters
which were not of the strictest pertinency to the subject in hand.
Feudal dues and incidents, the machinery of taxation, the Exchequer,
the forces accounting for the shifting composition of the national
assemblies, these and other matters have been treated of in outline
rather than in detail, because they appeared to lie beyond the scope of
this essay.
Only two matters have been taken to be of first rate importance,--the
tax and the authority by which it was laid. Taxation has been construed
broadly as being any contribution levied by the government for its
own support. An endeavor has been made in each instance to find out
who or what the taxing authority was, and whether the tax was laid
in accordance with it. Under the Normans the taxing authority was
unmistakably the king, and by the Bill of Rights it lay as unmistakably
in Parliament, with the right of initiation in the House of Commons.
The story of the shift from one position to the other forms, of
course, the major burden of the essay.
At the time when the subject was assigned, the power of the House of
Commons over money bills had not been brought into question for more
than two centuries, and the first drafts had been written and the prize
awarded before the Asquith ministry was confronted with the problem of
interference by the House of Lords. At this writing the question has
not been settled. It has seemed advisable therefore to leave the essay
within the bounds originally set for it, and what connection it has
with the events of 1909 and 1910 consists chiefly in its consideration
of the basic principles involved in that struggle.
To the late Henry Loomis Nelson, David A. Wells Professor of Political
Science in Williams College, I owe the interest I have had in the
preparation of this book. It is an outgrowth of his course in English
Constitutional history, and some of the interpretations placed upon
events are his interpretations. His death intervened before the
second draft of the book was made, and the revisory work had to be
done without his suggestions. To my friend, Dr. Theodore Clarke
Smith, Professor in Williams College, I am indebted for a painstaking
examination of the manuscript and for much valuable advice in the work
preliminary to publication. Acknowledgments in the footnotes to Bishop
Stubbs, Mr. Medley, Mr. Taswell-Langmead and many others scarcely
manifest my obligations. But the essay throughout is based upon
original authorities.
SHEPARD ASHMAN MORGAN.
NEW YORK, December, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE SAXONS: CUSTOMARY REVENUES AND EXTRAORDINARY CONTRIBUTIONS 1
Evolutionary character of the English Constitution--Early ideas
of taxation amongst the Germans and Anglo-Saxons--Revenues
of the Anglo-Saxon kings--The Danegeld and the authority for
it--The Witenagemot and its powers.